Below is part of an article written by Patricia King at the beginning of the year, long before the current Florida Outpouring began. You can read the entire article here.

How to respond to false manifestations?

As I am writing this article, I am dealing with a situation where someone in our meetings manifested some “mixture” in the area of signs and wonders. They were helping God out. They had experienced the true phenomena of God in the past many times and yet gave into the temptation of the enemy to fabricate a sign. In this case, it was the planting of gemstones in a meeting that were not given by God. There was mixture. The true and the false can operate through the same person.

When the Lord revealed this to our team, of course we were devastated. The initial reaction was shock, pain, and in some of our team, anger. We had trusted and now felt deceived. We went back and forth at first with doubt that this could even be happening. We did not want to believe that someone had violated our trust. What about the people who came to the meetings trusting and believing? What about their innocence and the violation of that? How are we to handle situations like this? How are we to respond?

The Lord helped us through with the following insights:

Confrontation. We had to lovingly but firmly confront the offender. They denied it at first. We continued to pray for the Lord to give us the Word of the Lord on the situation and to give us more “evidence”. He did! The main goal in confrontation is to bring a brother (or sister) to repentance so they can be restored. This is part of the LOVE WAR the Body is in. Oftentimes individuals get hurt when they confront and the response is denial. This can produce more pain and more uncertainty. It is important to rest in the love of God in the midst of confrontation. Let His peace fill you. Never confront when you are angry for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. It is important not to jump to conclusions but to wait until you have the facts completely in place.

Admit Pain. We cannot deny our pain, anger, and disappointment, but we cannot let these things build walls around our hearts. I cried before God bringing my pain to Him and asking Him to keep me strong so that I could help heal the offender and the Body.

Rightly Discern between the True and False. We did not want to throw out the true due to seeing a manifestation of the false. We have seen the true many times over. We have had credible ministries like Joshua and Janet Mills and many others labor with us in the area of supernatural manifestations. They have been real valid experiences flowing through pure hearts. The minister who manifested the lying signs had also manifested the true. We must keep our faith strong in times like these and discern objectively.

Don’t over-react. It is easy at this point to want to shut down everything – especially your heart. Jesus taught us in the parable of the wheat and the tares not to react in fear or in haste. He assured us that HE will take care of it and will send angels to remove all stumbling blocks out of His Kingdom. In the meantime, we must not lose faith or trust in Him.

Wisdom. Wisdom from above is: pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. (James 3:17) If we ask for wisdom, God will give it. (James 1:5). Wisdom is very important. It is vital that we only proceed as the Father directs. We need to know what steps to take, what to share and what not to share, how to approach the situation, and how to respond. The Lord will instruct us if we WAIT on Him. God showed us how we could walk in love for this individual, to help them get restored and also to help the Body process. He gave us wisdom on how to uphold righteousness in the midst of an unrighteous act. He is so good and His wisdom is perfect.

Exposure. We are going to see exposure of the false in 2008. Jesus warns us that the things done in secret will be shouted from the roof-tops. Great wisdom is needed in how things are exposed, but there will be increased exposure coming. We must not cover things up even though we want to cover each other during a time of healing and restoration. We cover in love but we expose in truth with sensitivity. We need to walk in the integrity of the truth. We must not compromise.

Keep faith. The enemy desires to produce doubt in our hearts. If he can do this, he has won his battle. When the Lord exposes the false in 2008, many will fall away due to disillusionment. Beware of this. Do not close the door of your heart. Remember, the exposure of tares is inevitable. Jesus told us that wheat and tares would grow up together in the same field. Learn to rightly divide but keep your faith strong. Do not shrink back.

Press on. I always like to make the devil sorry he ever tried! Press on for more of God. We are pressing on for more of all that He desires to reveal. If it is of Him, we want it! Allow your love for Jesus and His Kingdom rise up in you like never before. 2008 is going to be amazing!

The heart of God is always, always, ALWAYS redemptive toward us. Even when we blow it, when we sin. Because that is the heart of God toward us, that needs to be our heart toward one another.

Patricia was violated by this minister. His violation not only destroyed her trust in him, but it could have had serious consequences for her ministry and damaged her credibility with her partners. Yet her main concern was how to help heal not only the damage done to the Body of Christ, but to heal the offender as well. She and her team made a conscious decision to walk in love toward this individual and help them.

1 Corinthians 13 shows us the heart of God, because God is love:

1 If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 but do not have love, I gain nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body [to hardship] that I may boast,

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I have been appalled at the tone of many of the things I have seen written on the Internet concerning Todd Bentley. I am not concerned about people’s disagreement with his theology or teachings. There are many people in the Body of Christ that I disagree with, but I am not out on a campaign to destroy them. They belong to God and it is up to Him to discipline His children, not me. I may spat with people on this or other forums, but when it comes down to it, they are fellow believers and there is a line that if I cross, I will have to answer to my Father for how I am treating His children.

Here is a piece that I came across today that blew my mind. This was a copy of an email a blogger sent to Destiny Image Publishing.

“How can you claim to be a publisher of ‘foundationally spirit-filled’, ‘biblically sound’, and ’spiritually inspirational’ books, when you published Todd Bentley’s book ‘The Reality of the Supernatural World’, which as well as containing numerous scriptural contradictions and deceptions, also contains deliberate intentional lies and false testimony?

Notably I draw you attention to the sex changes of Todd’s alleged encounter with the angel Emma from female to an unnamed male angel on page 230 of the book. (See more details here). This is appalling and indefensible and means that you knowingly publish a liar’s books – why, is the money in it too tempting for you? Or do you not care about scriptural truth, general honesty and integrity any more?”

Now, I don’t know about you, but I would beat my kid if I found out she had sent such a rude piece of correspondence out, just on a natural level. It seems that if you are the doctrine police, the rules of polite conduct no longer apply to you.

This person did not even attempt to confront Todd Bentley. They took it first to the publisher and then posted the email on the internet for the world to see, without having ever once sought Todd and tried to reason with him about the issues raised here. Contrast that with what Patricia did. Contrast that with 1 Corinthians 13.

If you think Todd Bentley’s a heretic, fine. You have that right. If you believe you are attempting to defend the flock of God, you even have a noble motive. But scripture is clear about how these things are to be done. Confronting Todd is the first step. If that gets you nowhere, he has publicly submitted to a group of elders in the Body. Take your concerns to his leadership. That is the godly thing to do.

But whatever your actions, you have to love the guy. You have to pray for him. You cannot dishonor him. Scripture says so. And those of you who continue to attack with the desire for the destruction of this man, you are going to find yourself with God opposing you. Scripture says so.

If we want to use the Levitcus 19:28 passage about tattoos being sin we should also look at some of the other things spoken of in the same chapter as being sin as well…

Is it sin to wear blended material clothing? What about beeffalo? A garden with several different types of vegetables in it?

“‘You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.”
(Leviticus 19:19 NAS95S)

“‘You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard.”
(Leviticus 19:27 NAS95S)

I personally like a passage of Scripture in Isaiah 44 from the Amplified Bible…

“One will say, I am the Lord’s; and another will call himself by the name of Jacob; and another will write [even brand or tattoo] upon his hand, I am the Lord’s, and surname himself by the [honorable] name of Israel.”
(Isaiah 44:5 AMP)

Just some things to consider in all this tattoos are sinful business…

And I am not even going to go into whether women should pierce their ears according to that thought line…

“Who are you to pass judgment on and censure another’s household servant? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he shall stand and be upheld, for the Master (the Lord) is mighty to support him and make him stand.”
(Romans 14:4 AMP)

Whose house is it anyway???

“EXCEPT THE Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.”
(Psalms 127:1 AMP)

I am sure He can handle things in His house…

Gamaliel had a good idea of handling things in Acts 5:34-39… we should take heed…

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Xtreme Encounters

I have had some search engine hits looking for our ministry/revival center which we are calling Xtreme Encounters, because we have been having extreme encounters with the Lord. You can find our ministry website at xtremeencounters.com.